


Cookie Predictions

by cywscross



Series: Tumblr Prompts 2016 [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arcobaleno Sawada Tsunayoshi, Crack, Fortune Cookies, Gen, Magical Realism, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 16:50:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6203218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/pseuds/cywscross
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It starts when he’s five, when his mother brings home a bag of fortune cookies and explains what the strips of paper inside them are for.</p><p>
  <strong>Free For Adoption<br/>Requirements:<br/>- Tell me first so I know<br/>- Tell me after so I can link it<br/>- Post only on AO3<br/>- Credit me for the part I wrote</strong>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cookie Predictions

**Author's Note:**

> _generalzargon said: As per the instructions, here's my prompt (really just something I think would be funny): Fortune-cookie AU where everything Tsuna reads on a fortune cookie actually happens. He is therefore prepared for a lot of situations he shouldn't really expect, i.e "A hitman that looks like a baby will show up to train you as a mafia boss". Here's to hoping this one inspires you, even if it is just a one-shot at most. :D I wish you luck on your writing!_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Idk where I even thought I was taking this when I started it, but Shivani’s _Welkin_ got me into Arcobaleno!Tsuna, so my brain decided to throw that in, and then I guess I lost the plot, especially since I couldn’t really make this much longer than where I’ve ended it without it growing epically long.

 

It starts when he’s five, when his mother brings home a bag of fortune cookies because they were on sale and explains what the strips of paper inside them are for.

“They have advice or even a prediction written on them for you to follow, Tsu-kun,” Kaa-chan explains as she passes one to him.

Tsuna is fascinated.  The cookie is a bit big in his chubby hands but he thinks the shape is cool, and the thought of opening it and finding a piece of magic inside has him bouncing in his seat with excitement.  “Can I open it?”

Kaa-chan laughs and nods, showing him her own cookie.  “How about we each open one together?”

Tsuna nods back eagerly, and on three, he squeezes the fortune cookie until it breaks.  Well, it doesn’t break so much as crumble into several pieces, along with a sprinkle of crumbs, but he spots the strip of paper inside and brightens anyway.

His reading is pretty good – he’s one of the best in class – so it only takes a moment to puzzle through the words on the paper.

_‘Your dad is coming back next week.’_

Tsuna blinks.  He knows what a ‘dad’ is, but he didn’t know he has one.  Did the cookie make a mistake?

“‘Your smile brings happiness to everyone you meet’,” Her mother reads out loud, and Tsuna looks up to see her beaming happily.  “Well, I do hope it does.  What does yours say, Tsu-kun?”

Tsuna hands her his fortune, and her eyes widen when she reads what’s on the slip of paper.  And then she springs to her feet, hands clapping together, and Tsuna’s only ever seen that particular expression on her face when she mentions that Papa person.

“Your papa’s coming home!”  She squeals, looking so much happier all of a sudden.  “Oh Tsu-kun, you got an excellent fortune.  You can finally meet your papa!”

The Papa person is ‘dad’?  Tsuna frowns, and he keeps frowning even after his mom passes back the piece of paper before dashing off, thinking out loud about stocking up on Papa’s favourite foods.

Tsuna doesn’t know what to think.  The Papa person obviously makes Kaa-chan happy, but from what he’s heard at school, dads are supposed to do things like teach their kids how to ride a bike and swim, give them piggyback rides and maybe walk them to school sometimes, but mostly, they’re supposed to _be_ here.  A boy in his class, Yamamoto, is always going on and on about _his_ dad and how great at making sushi he is.

He fidgets with the slip of paper, absently snacking on some of the cookie itself, and then he almost drops his fortune out of surprise when he flips it around and finds more words on the back.

_‘Don’t let him pick you up. He’ll drop you.’_

Tsuna blanches, horrified.  He doesn’t want to be _dropped_.  And what is some stranger doing picking him up anyway?

Right.  Tsuna will just have to be very very careful when he’s around the Papa person then.  He doesn’t want to get hurt after all.

He eyes the table where the rest of the cookie is.  He glances at the kitchen where his mother is humming away, and then – after another moment of indecision – he reaches up and grabs three more for later, feeling only a little bit guilty.

But it’s _magic_ , and Tsuna’s never seen _actual magic_ food before.  He supposes he can always ask his mom for more later but it’s easier to just have a couple tucked away in his room, so he doesn’t have to keep asking all the time.  Besides, he doesn’t think Kaa-chan would mind.  She’s already told him that the fortune cookies are for him to have fun with.

So he finishes off the first cookie before gathering up his fortune and the other three cookies, and then he scampers up to his room.  He pulls out one of the drawers in his bedside table, clears up a space and layers it with a tissue, and then giddily stores the cookies inside.

There.  Three magic cookies waiting for him to open them.  He’s kind of tempted to open another one right then and there but he doesn’t want to be greedy.  He’s already opened one today so he’ll wait a few days before opening the next one, and maybe it’ll even be a better fortune.

Either way the magic will be so cool to see again.  He can’t wait.

 

* * *

 

Sunday night, Tsuna takes out another fortune cookie with eager hands and breaks it open, immediately plucking out the slip of paper inside.

This time, it reads, _‘Your dad’s boss will seal your flames.’_

Tsuna stares.  What?  What does that mean?  The Papa man’s boss?  And flames?  The closest he’s ever been to any sort of fire are the scented candles his mom sometimes lights for Christmas.

He studies the piece of paper for a while longer.  Then, remembering that his fortune had advice on the back as well, he flips it over.

_‘It will make you miserable.’_

Tsuna flinches and drops the paper.  It flutters to the floor without a sound, and for a minute, all he can do is stare at it in horror.

What?!

Why?  What flames?  And why would the Papa man’s boss even _care_ whether or not Tsuna is miserable?

…Has the Papa man been telling people bad things about him?!

Okay, Tsuna thinks decisively as he picks up the fortune again.  Okay.  All he has to do is avoid both the Papa man and the Papa man’s boss.  If Tsuna stays out of their way and doesn’t make a fuss, surely he’ll be alright.

Right?

 

* * *

 

Nothing turns out alright.

The very next day, a big blond man bursts through the door shouting for Kaa-chan, and Tsuna – playing with his toy cars in the living room – almost screams from the sight of the loud stranger invading their home.

But then Kaa-chan is there, giggling and leaping into the blond man’s arms, and the man twirls her around the way a prince in one of Tsuna’s fairy tales might twirl a princess, and they each start babbling about love and how much they’ve missed each other.

Tsuna can put two and two together.  This must be the Papa man.  Tsuna’s _dad_.

But after the initial shock, Tsuna doesn’t really pay too much more attention to the man, mostly because he can somehow tell that this crazy stranger is not the scariest thing in the room.  There’s an old man behind the Papa man, like _old_ old – grey hair and everything! – and when _he_ steps inside, something in Tsuna sits up and takes notice.

Because this old man looks nice enough, smiling kindly and everything, like some of the old grandmas at the supermarket that like to pinch Tsuna’s cheeks and give him candy, but at the same time, Tsuna _knows_ he’s dangerous.

So when Kaa-chan finally remembers him again and stops cuddling up to the Papa man, Tsuna can’t help sticking close to her.  Kaa-chan won’t let him get hurt, right?

Except.  Except she sort of does, because she introduces him to the Papa man, and when he continues clutching at her skirt, she _pushes him forward_ , and before Tsuna can retreat, large hands snatch him up, that too-loud voice booms out, “Hello my little Tuna-fishie!  Did you miss Papa?”, and then he’s _thrown into the air like a ragdoll_.

His heart is lodged so high in his throat that he can’t even shriek in fear.  The Papa man catches him the first time, then the second time, but the _third_ time, he _misses_.

Tsuna is very, very lucky that they’re standing right by the couch.  Every time the Papa man catches him, it’s like he doesn’t even know how to do it right.  He catches Tsuna the way Tsuna would catch a ball, carelessly because a ball can’t hurt even if he misses and it bounces off the ground, but Tsuna doesn’t _bounce_ , and when the Papa man doesn’t quite catch him entirely the third time, Tsuna hits the couch instead, while one of the Papa man’s hands grab his leg on the way down.

He lets go just as fast, which is probably the only reason Tsuna doesn’t get his leg ripped off, but it still hurts, and then the Papa man is laughing again, one hand rubbing the back of his head, and Kaa-chan is scolding him but it’s not _serious_ scolding because she’s smiling at him at the same time, and Tsuna is-

Tsuna scrambles off the couch, wincing a little when he puts weight on his left knee, and then he’s scurrying out of the room and up the stairs as fast as he can, ignoring the calls behind him.

The first prediction came true, and _it was so scary_.

Tsuna really doesn’t want to be around when the second comes true too.

 

* * *

 

It doesn’t matter what he wants.  His mom coaxes him back down a while later, gently admonishing him about being rude and asking him to come down and greet the Papa man’s boss.

Tsuna obeys, reluctantly, then – because he isn’t allowed upstairs again – he steps outside to play by himself instead, close enough for the adults to see him.

Then the stupid dog from three doors down appears and barks at him, and Tsuna really doesn’t like it because it bit him once on the way home, and he just wants it to _go away_.

A flash of bright orange later, it does.

But so does the warm feeling inside him, and in the seconds after the Papa man’s boss pokes his forehead with a fingertip of fire, in the seconds before everything goes dark, Tsuna thinks muzzily, _so that’s what ‘flames’ mean_.  _I had it after all._

 

* * *

 

When he wakes up, the Papa man is gone, the Papa man’s boss is gone, and Tsuna can’t feel anything but cold and empty on the inside.

 

* * *

 

Four years later, Tsuna is – as that second fortune cookie predicted – miserable.  It started the very next morning after he woke up.  He tripped down the stairs when he’s _never_ done that before.  He tripped a total of six times on his way to school, over _nothing_ , when he hasn’t tripped over a shoelace since he learned how to tie them by himself.  He’s always been quick on his feet but he even tripped right into the classroom, and a few of his classmates snickered, but at least the teacher came and helped him up.

Not anymore.  People laugh instead – teachers and students alike – and he can’t remember the last time someone aside from Kaa-san called him anything but Dame-Tsuna.  Actually, even Kaa-san calls him Dame-Tsuna sometimes now.  He’s failed so many assignments and tests that the teachers have given up on him.  Every bully on the playground picks on him.  Even the kids who used to be his friends all taunt him for his clumsiness and stupidity.

And worst of all, Tsuna’s stopped caring.  Or maybe that’s not exactly right.  He still cares, just enough that every sneered word and stolen lunch and kick in the ribs hurts almost more than he can bear.  But he’s also nine and tired of going home with cuts and bruises, and if he hears his mom sigh, “It’s okay, you’ll always be my Dame-Tsuna” one more time, he might scream.

He’s nine years old and he’s given up on his life ever getting better.  It’s been like this for so long, he’s forgotten what it’s like to _not_ be miserable.

The fortune cookies help, if only a little.  Tsuna buys them with his own pocket money now.  They’re pretty much the only things he spends money on, but they’re also the only things he trusts not to let him down.  He cracks one open every day, and sometimes, it would warn him against taking his usual route to school so to avoid the worst of his bullies.  Other days, it would tell him to concentrate on a certain section of his math textbook for the upcoming test so that he would at least scrape by with a pass.

They help.  They’re the only things that help him now, and Tsuna is grateful for it.  Magic, at least, won’t desert him, the way everyone and everything else has.

Still.  It’s… hard, to keep going, going to school, going home, insults and beatings in-between, day after day after day.  But what else can he do?

He bites into his daily fortune cookie, retrieving a mouthful of cookie along with the strip of paper inside.  He plucks it from his lips, wondering if it’ll be more bullies or a pop quiz or the teacher making fun of him in class today.

It’s none of those.

_‘You’ll meet a man wearing an iron hat today who can unseal your flames.’_

Tsuna’s heart jumps.  This.  This is the first time since he was five – before the Papa man’s visit – that any mention of fire has come up.  He still doesn’t know what flames are obviously, aside from the fact that they used to make him more _him_ , and without them, it’s as if the very colours in the world around him have drained away, but he’s hoped, of course he has, that one of these fortune cookies might give him a hint about how to get his ‘flames’ back one day, or even just an explanation about what the heck happened when that weird old man touched him, but after so many years of nothing, he pretty much gave up on that hope too.

But now… He flips the paper over.  _‘In exchange, your life will be shortened.’_

Tsuna slowly lowers his hands to his lap.  For a long minute, he just sits there, on the edge of his bed, and eventually, he comes to the realization that… he doesn’t care.  He doesn’t care that it seems as if he’s going to die early, because… well, it’s not like his life is going anywhere anyway, right?

Right now, all he wants… all he wants is for the cold, hollow feeling in his chest to go away, to stop feeling like someone’s carved out everything inside him and left him empty, to be able to _walk home from school_ without someone leaving him aching and bleeding on the sidewalk, to be able to do his stupid homework without feeling like there’s a fog in his head preventing him from understanding _anything_.

And if this man can help him get all that back, if this man can help make his life even just the tiniest bit better, and the only price to pay is a shorter life, then Tsuna can’t – he just _can’t_ – turn it down.

 

* * *

 

Tsuna is jittery from morning to afternoon, anxiety coiling in his stomach as he trudges through school, doing the best he can.  Even the beating he gets from some older middle school kids can’t distract him the desperation burning in his chest.  For once, ever since that fateful day, he doesn’t feel like he’s just barely treading water anymore.  The desperation buoys him up and pushes him past the usual verbal and physical abuse flung his way.

It finally happens when he’s walking home from the convenience store with a few snacks his mother wanted, along with a new bag of fortune cookies for himself.  One minute he’s tense and nervous and almost sick with both that maybe the cookie magic has abandoned him too at last, and then the next minute a man wearing an iron hat, a mask, and somewhat odd-looking clothes appears in front of him out of nowhere.

The man holds out a book and an orange pacifier.

“Someone has left their mark on your very life force,” The man says quietly, an underscore of displeasure in his voice.  “I daresay it’s made your life rather difficult.  I can fix it.  But only if you become the Sky Arcobaleno.”

Tsuna’s reaching for both items almost before the man finishes speaking.

And the moment he touches the pacifier, the world explodes in fireworks of orange.

Tsuna’s smiling even as his consciousness fades, and above him, the man scoops him up with a sigh and a shake of his head.

“Vongola will rue the day they ever sought to chain such a pure Sky to their blood-soaked throne.”

 

* * *

 

Tsuna wakes in his own bed without having actually fallen asleep there for the second time in his life.  The book is on the bedside table beside him, the pacifier on top of that, and the world, _oh_ the world, is so much brighter than Tsuna can ever remember it being.  He’s warm and content, and when he breathes, it’s like taking that first sweet gulp of air after an eternity underwater.

 

* * *

 

The book explains everything.  Well, not _everything_.  For one, while it mentions the Tri-ni-set and the three sets of rings that it’s made up of, it doesn’t say who owns the Mare Rings or the Vongola Rings.  However, it _does_ explain the role of the Arcobaleno, along with the roles of each Flame type.  Tsuna himself is a Sky, according to what Tsuna remembers the iron hat man saying, not to mention orange means Sky, and both Tsuna’s Flames and the pacifier are orange.

Tsuna stays up the whole night reading.  It’s a good thing it’s a Saturday by the time dawn breaks, because he would’ve skipped school anyway.  He absorbs everything in the book like a sponge, paying careful attention to all of the information, and special attention to the profiles in the back, where each of the other Arcobaleno’s names and faces and a short description are listed for Tsuna to learn.

Because apparently, Tsuna is _their_ Sky.  Their ‘leader’, of sorts.

His first thought is, of course, _no thanks_.  He doesn’t even know them, and he doesn’t want to be the boss of anyone anyway.  Besides, it seems as if they’re all in the _mafia_ , and _really_?  Tsuna wants nothing to do with the mafia.  What little he knows of it includes violence and crime, and his life’s already been shortened; he doesn’t need it _in danger_ and _further shortened_ too.

And even if he ignores all that, these… Guardian bonds that the book talks about seem pretty important.  It wouldn’t really be fair to the other Arcobaleno if they all got to know Tsuna, only for Tsuna to die early on them.

Luckily, the book doesn’t say anything about gathering everyone together being a requirement or anything.  They can all live separate lives just fine, and most of these people seem like loners anyway, from what their descriptions say.  Only Viper, or Mammon, as he’s apparently now called, belongs to a Sky of his own.

So that’s that.  More importantly at the moment is perhaps the fact that Tsuna woke up in the physical body of a toddler, which has him a bit panicked for a moment because how is he going to explain this to his mom?  To the school?

But then a note falls out of the book, with only two words and a ring - plain silver, nothing fancy – attached to it.

 _A gift._ – it simply says.  Tsuna assumes it’s from the man with the iron hat, and after examining the ring a bit curiously, he puts it on but doesn’t feel any different, so he shrugs and moves on for now.

According to the book, he should also have an animal companion.  No sooner does he think that when grey ears and a black nose peeks up over the edge of his bed, and Tsuna yelps and almost falls off the other side when he scoots back, alarmed.

Amused orange eyes peer over at him before a _wolf_ of all things jumps onto his bed.

“Hello,” It offers, and when it grins, it shows off a set of very sharp teeth.

 

* * *

 

Tsuna apparently gets a wolf pup for his animal partner.  She’s grey and white all over, and still large enough for Tsuna to ride around on if he wants despite being a pup.  She can also sense hostile intent within a one-mile radius (“More eventually,” She assures. “But we’ll have to work on it.”), and somehow, she is virtually invisible when she finds a shadow to hide in.

Because she tells him she doesn’t have a name so he has to name her, Tsuna thinks about it a bit before deciding on Yuzuki.

Yuzuki cares less about the name and more about curling up next to Tsuna for a nap.

Well, why not.  Tsuna didn’t get any sleep last night anyway.  He can think about everything he’s learned later.

 

* * *

 

The silver ring, Tsuna soon discovers, makes it so that nobody can tell he’s pint-sized again, which is a relief because now he doesn’t have to worry about that.  He also discovers that while he may be the size of a two-year-old, he still retains the physical abilities of a nine-year-old.

And he’s not clumsy anymore.  Thank Kami.

It still startles him when he flies from floor to chair in one bounding leap, and even though eating meals now means sitting on the _table_ because he’s so small – his mom really doesn’t seem to notice, which is kind of weird and kind of cool, but that might just be a combination of the ring _and_ his mom’s innate obliviousness – he also admittedly gets a thrill out of being able to jump that high.

In all the excitement, he almost forgets to crack open a fortune cookie that day.  He’ll be forever grateful to them, that they’ve helped him through all these years.  The latest one tells him he won’t trip at all on Monday, and he’ll be able to avoid _all_ his bullies.  Tsuna almost cheers out loud.  Instead, he sits down and studies for his upcoming English test.

And he’s amazed how easily it comes to him.  He remembers – from before – that studying was never so hard.  His brain didn’t feel like mush every time he opened a textbook, and not much got muddled up in his head.  Everything is so much clearer again, and after studying for the test, he goes back to his first grade texts and begins relearning everything.

 

* * *

 

He gets another four years – of devouring everything his stunned teachers can put in front of him, of signing up for everything from the art club to the tea ceremony club to the track and field team, of exploring anything and everything that he finds remotely interesting because he knows his life has a deadline now and he has to make the most of his second chance – before he meets his first fellow Arcobaleno.  As always, it’s a fortune cookie that forewarns him.

 _‘A hitman that looks like a baby will show up to train you as a mafia boss.’_ , and behind that, _‘To be specific, Vongola Decimo, which is the Vongola Sky ring position.’_

…Well.  Tsuna is fairly certain there’s nothing balanced about one person holding two Sky rings from two different sets of Tri-ni-set rings, so he doubts he’ll be suitable for the position, not to mention he totally doesn’t want to be a mafia boss anyway.

He lifts a hand and touches the pacifier – pulsing warmly – tucked out of sight behind his shirt.

He’ll just have to play it by ear, he decides.  For now, he has tutoring to get to, and it won’t do to keep Yamamoto waiting.  The boy won’t mind – in fact, he seem to be trying to befriend Tsuna lately for some reason, approaching him at lunch even, but while Tsuna has more or less forgiven his old bullies and classmates now that they can no longer catch Tsuna, and Tsuna is doing well enough in school that they can’t call him Dame-Tsuna anymore either, he hasn’t exactly forgotten.  Yamamoto never actively picked on him, but he laughed at him right alongside his baseball friends, and he never stood up for Tsuna.  Obviously, Yamamoto had no obligation to since they weren’t friends at the time, but likewise, Tsuna doesn’t think he’s being unreasonable for keeping the other boy at arm’s length, even after the teacher asked him to tutor Yamamoto in history and English.

He finds it a lot harder to trust these days.  People are fickle, children especially.  If even Tsuna’s own mother can turn on him when he’s dumb and slow and clumsy, Tsuna isn’t about to let anyone else close unless he’s absolutely _sure_ about them.  That’s probably why he still has no friends, even though he has plenty of friendly acquaintances at school and even pockets of – frankly creepy – admirers.

Besides, he has Yuzuki, and speaking of whom, the wolf – now with the ability to grow to the size of their coffee table, and capable of pinpointing hostile intent up to five miles in every direction – licks his jaw for attention, and Tsuna smiles and turns to give her a hug.  Yuzuki is faithful and constant, Okaa-san thinks she’s just a stray dog Tsuna found, and while she can’t go to class with him, she never fails to walk him to and from school every day.  On weekends and summer breaks, when they go to the forest and mountain bordering part of Namimori, she even teaches Tsuna how to hunt and hide and track.

“The ring might not work on him,” Yuzuki remarks now.  “But even if it does, if you show him who you are, he might help you with the Vongola problem.  Even if you’re not _his_ Sky personally, you’re still the Sky Arcobaleno.”

Tsuna hums thoughtfully.  “Maybe.  But let’s see what he’s like first, okay?”

Yuzuki nods in agreement.  Tsuna checks the time before hastily grabbing his bag, and the two of them zoom out the door, heading for Takesushi.

 

* * *

 

What Reborn is like is… well, he fires a rubber bullet at Tsuna’s head the moment Tsuna states that he doesn’t want to be a mafia boss.  Tsuna dodges, taken aback by the sudden, violent response.

Yuzuki?  Not so much.  She lunges out from where she was sitting in a shadowed corner, a rumbling snarl rolling up from deep inside her chest even as she grows three times her pup size, and she aims straight for the chameleon gun in the Sun Arcobaleno’s hand, quick as a striking cobra.

She gets one good swipe in, claws narrowly missing the gun because Reborn yanks it back just in time, but she does manage to clip the hitman’s sleeve, shredding the material, before Tsuna launches himself at her and pulls her back.

“Stop!”  Tsuna yells, clinging to Yuzuki’s scruff and rounding on Reborn.  With a flick of his thumb, the ring slides off his finger, and Tsuna turns just in time to watch the Sun Arcobaleno freeze as both their pacifiers begin to glow.

Tsuna glares, all out of patience, because maybe first impressions aren’t always accurate, but if _that_ was Reborn’s automatic reaction to someone disagreeing with him, then _screw it_.  “I won’t be Vongola Decimo.  I can’t anyway, for obvious reasons.  Now you can go back to that _man_ and tell him why, or you can give me his number and I’ll do it.  Either way, I want you out of my house.  If shooting me is your reaction to someone having an opinion, then I don’t want you around.”

Reborn flinches, just a little, and Tsuna has to stomp down on a spike of guilt.  Yuzuki helps in that regard when her fangs remain bared, and she hasn’t stopped growling in all this time.

Slowly, the gun becomes a chameleon again, one that hastily scuttles back onto the brim of Reborn’s fedora, and Reborn himself keeps his hands in Tsuna’s line of sight.

“I’ll leave,” He says, and his voice is flat and almost monotone, but at the same time, Tsuna can sense the roiling mix of disbelief and despair shuddering behind it.  “And I’ll call Nono to inform him of the situation.  I’ll make it clear he’ll have to look elsewhere.”  He pauses, and he looks like he wants to say something more, but then he just nods, the brim of his hat casting a shadow over his eyes, and then he retreats, backing out and exuding harmlessness the entire way like he doesn’t want to spook a cornered stray.

Tsuna stays motionless on Yuzuki’s back, tiny fingers curled in her fur, and he grinds his teeth in annoyance before patting Yuzuki’s side.  The wolf huffs her own irritation but lopes out of the bedroom and down the stairs without further prompting.

They catch Reborn just as he’s disappearing over the front gate.

“Wait!”  Tsuna calls out, and Reborn immediately stops, not quite turning around to face him but clearly listening, and something in Tsuna squirms with equal parts dread and discomfort and almost a good sort of surprise.

He swallows, wondering if he really should, and then goes ahead with it anyway because… honestly, he doesn’t quite know, but he does it anyway.

“Come back tomorrow,” He settles on that, in as neutral a tone as possible.  “If you want.  Or don’t, if you don’t.  But I’m not joining the mafia.”

He doesn’t wait for a reply, and Yuzuki’s already taking him back inside anyway, almost before he finishes.  He’s still more than a little cross with the whole situation, but…

Well, at the end of the day, he’s still a Sky at heart.

 

* * *

 

Tsuna checks a fortune cookie that night.

_‘The rainbow is coming to town.’_

There is nothing on the back.

 

**Author's Note:**

> **Please leave a review on your way out.**


End file.
